Easter 2011

It was a great weekend. Friday we went to church at 3PM for the Good Friday service. It was a moving time of remembering the death of Jesus and all he suffered in order to purchase our salvation. Two women read the story from the New Testament. At one point, one of the woman broke down and cried as she read of the suffering of Jesus. The sermon was given by a man who has been under tremendous persecution and even had his life threatened. It was a privilege to worship with brothers and sisters who have paid so much to follow Christ. Saturday we celebrated the resurrection of Christ and it was a packed out service. Believers from the north and south of the country came for the occasion. A man that was sitting in front of us was asked to stand up and everyone clapped and cheered as the pastor told us that this was his first Easter & the first time he has been with other believers. Two months ago, a really neat guy that we liked a lot (kind of like the asst. pastor) left the church because of differences with the pastor. At this service, the 2 men stood in front of the congregation and asked for forgiveness from each other & from the congregation. In 28 years in the Middle East we have never seen anything like this! The humility & transparency on their part was really amazing. They cried in front of 200 people and asked for forgiveness. It was truly one of the most moving things we've ever witnessed. The guy that preached was fantastic and we left after 2 hours feeling like we'd tasted a bit of heaven. On Sunday, we figured we could skip church as they were having a joint service with the French & Arabic congregations and we knew it would be packed. We also had had such a great time celebrating the resurrection of Christ on Saturday that we didn't feel we needed more! And we were hosting an Easter dinner for 18 people Sunday evening so I needed to get ready for that. It turned out to be a very nice evening with a beautiful spread of food (everyone brought something), worship time with communion & games afterward. A great Easter weekend! The people around the table here are only part of the gang that was here!

frustrating day!

I had a long list of things to get accomplished today. Little did I know that on the day when you pay your electric bill, you should not plan much else! I walked about 15 minutes to the electric company. I took a number which was 77. They were on 23. The place was absolutely packed with people. There was a woman screaming behind a glass partition and I could hardly understand a word she was saying. I asked the man next to me what was happening. He said they had cut her electricity because she hadn't paid for 3 months. She was yelling so loud in that tiny room, I couldn't believe they put up with it. I'm not kidding, it went on for 30 minutes! She would calm down a bit and then start screaming again. I have no idea what the final outcome was but out walked this tiny little covered woman, still mumbling to herself as she went out the door. The man next to me kept saying things like "this is what democracy does" and "these people don't deserve democracy; they're animals". If nothing else, the 1 1/2 hours that I spent there was a great cultural lesson. I don't know if it was different before, but everyone is on nerve's edge these days. No one obeys the laws of the land. A taxi driver told me "we have to accept everything right now & keep our mouths shut" because there is no government & no law enforcement. If you get out and yell at someone in traffic, he may just shoot you with a gun. We've lived in that kind of situation before in Lebanon during the war years. After finally getting my bill paid, it was already 11AM and things would start closing down before long for lunch so I hurried to the municipality where I needed to get 10 copies of a "Power of Attorney" signed & stamped. I first of all walked a long ways to the wrong municipality and was redirected to another one, at least a 30-minute walk away. I couldn't find my passport anywhere but I had a copy and figured that would suffice. WRONG!! I waited (more like shoved & pushed)for one hour in a line that was 4 deep and culminated at one single window with a very grouchy lady. When I finally got up there, her first words were "where's your passport"? I said I'd brought a copy of it and she threw my papers back at me and told me to bring my passport next time. At that point, I had been walking or standing on my feet for 3 1/2 hours and I was beat. I thought I'd take a taxi home but they were all full (since it was lunchtime), so I walked. I was trying to think of things to be thankful for as I was near tears of exhaustion. I thought of quite a few actually & was home in no time at all, relaxing in my beautiful, comfortable home. One thing is for sure and that is that "all things work together for good to those who love God" and that's ME. I will go back tomorrow with my passport and try again. At least now I know the system.

interesting encounter

We have recently changed our business consultant due to incompetency on the part of the other group. I have met this new lady once at a coffee shop; I learned that she was the one and only female cross-bike rider from this country but she was driving a 4X4 vehicle that day. She was very pleasant and confident in her work and we decided to go with her. Yesterday I met with her again to actually start drawing up the statutes for our business & beginning serious work. I dressed up for the occasion, wanting to look the part of the business woman that I'm supposed to be. When we arrived at her office (which turned out to be the basement of her house), she was dressed in sweatpants, T-shirt and a bandanna on her head. Her large orange motorcycle was sitting in the driveway & she informed me that she not only loved her bike but she adored it. We had a very pleasant meeting and accomplished a lot. She told us about how she loves to ride through the desert on her bike and often stops to take pictures & enjoy the beauty. She doesn't care if she comes in first place in the competition. (I thought there was a good message in there)When it was time to leave, she said she would lead us out to the main road as it was a bit complicated. She jumped on her bike and flew out of the driveway, motor roaring and dirt flying! I laughed so hard as she did "wheelies" up over the speed bumps and swerved in and out of traffic. It was such a funny experience. The bottom line is that the woman is FUN and knows her job and will get us registered it seems, with little effort. She's invited us to one of her competitions down in the southern desert someday soon. Can't wait!

Plan B

This afternoon we had a meeting, kind of an orientation, for all the new folks who have come in the last year. After our meeting, we planned to go to a nice restaurant in the middle of town. We all walked downtown and were almost to the restaurant when we began feeling the effects of tear gas! Then we saw riot police and people running. We had to turn around because we obviously couldn't continue toward the tear gas. A few went to a local pizza place and ordered pizza while the rest of us went back to the meeting place. We sat around and ate pizza instead of the restaurant meal we were looking forward to. All in a day...

a little break

Although we've only been here less than 3 months and hardly needed a break, we were invited to attend the prayer conference of the Senegal field and gladly accepted! Of course, having a sister & brother-in-law & 2 nieces there was an extra pull. The setting for the conference was a "tropical paradise" right on the ocean. Wild monkeys would often visit us at mealtime and once swooped down on our table and grabbed a banana right off someone's plate. Another time, a monkey got up on the dessert table and filled both fists with crepes. While sitting at the pool, one came up beside me and starting digging in a woman's bag, looking to see if there was anything he wanted in there. In the dining area, there were numerous bats hanging down from the netting area but they never bothered us. Each couple or family was housed in a little individual "hut". It was truly a restful time of spiritual refreshment & physical renewal, except that we ate way too much food with three buffets served everyday!! The time with our family in Dakar was also fun; never can have too much of that! My nieces enjoyed helping Uncle Darrell with his French lessons. There were often loud outbursts of laughter when his tongue refused to make the right sounds:) Life in West Africa is certainly more primitive than the Africa we live in. I realize that our life is a lot easier in many ways. It was good to get home and I hope to soon get into a rhythm of life here which we definitely don't have yet. Now Darrell has had to leave for 17 days to be with his very ill mother so I guess that rhythm won't get going anytime soon. We press on, seeing what God has for us each day and walking faithfully in what he calls us to do.